Hiragana Keyaki out-of-town members may finally have moved to Tokyo

Even since Hiragana Keyakizaka46 was created last summer, I have been expecting the out-of-town members -- Higashimura Mei (Nara), Kakizaki Memi (Nagano), and Takase Mana (Osaka) -- to move to Tokyo and live in the dorm. But it didn't happen.

I eventually came to the conclusion that they would wait until the end of the school year in February-March to make the move. And now here we are. Indications from all three of their blogs are that they may finally have moved to the capital. Hiragana Keyaki can now enter a more intense stage of its training and activities.

First it was Takase Mana who wrote a couple of days ago about the difference in escalator etiquette between Osaka and Tokyo. Maybe that has to do with which side of the escalator you stand on, to let faster people rush past. In Tokyo, it tends to be stand left. But in Tokyo every corner in some stations seems to being a new instruction as to which side of a corridor to walk on, left or right. And sometimes people follow the instruction.

Then Higashimura Mei talked about having a friend come to Tokyo and going to the SkyTree for the first time:

Now Memi is talking about going out on the trains with Meimei and having trouble figuring out which line to take to get where (get the Navitime app on your phone, Memi!).

Here it is, mid-week, and they're posting every day and talking about Tokyo. Sounds very much as if they have moved in.

Manafii and Meimei are both graduating from high school now. Memi is graduating from middle school. Some comments on 2channel say there is still a week or more to go for senior high school students, but others say that doesn't matter if you already have your place in a university. Meimei long ago said she wanted to go to university in Tokyo; and the smart and knowledgeable Manafii is clearly headed for some good university. The new school year begins in April.

Memi lives a bit closer than the other two, but it still takes at least 2-1/2 hours to get from her place to the practice rooms in Tokyo. Akane last winter apparently commuted all the way to Miyagi three days a week for her last year of high school. But starting a new school, as Memi is going to do anyway, seems like a good time to make a break. And as training and performing get busier, it will make life much easier.

And oh, yes, Memi is stubborn and has her father wrapped around her little finger.